Bad tastes, odours and toxins in our drinking water reservoirs: are benthic cyanobacteria the culprits? Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) produce toxins and bad tastes that contaminate drinking water sources, cause public concern about water quality. This project will address a critical knowledge gap by investigating species that grow on the sediments of reservoirs, thus providing more comprehensive management solutions to the water industry.
Impact of industrially based endocrine disrupting chemicals on aquatic biota. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are a serious threat to aquatic organisms, livestock and humans. EDCs are present in water discharged from sewage treatment plants and in leachate from contaminated land. This project will determine the impact of EDCs from contaminated landfill on aquatic animals. It will also identify the chemicals responsible for biological impact by developing new bio-assays suitable for industr ....Impact of industrially based endocrine disrupting chemicals on aquatic biota. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are a serious threat to aquatic organisms, livestock and humans. EDCs are present in water discharged from sewage treatment plants and in leachate from contaminated land. This project will determine the impact of EDCs from contaminated landfill on aquatic animals. It will also identify the chemicals responsible for biological impact by developing new bio-assays suitable for industrial, scientific and regulatory authority applications. This research has wide-ranging relevance and value to Australian State and Federal regulators and industries because of the ubiquity of sewage treatment plants and contaminated leachate from landfills.Read moreRead less
New approaches for protecting stream health in temperate Australia: Devising nutrient and salinity guidelines using diatoms. Salinity and nutrient enrichment are the most significant forms of water quality degradation in Australian lowland rivers. This project will identify the biological effect of the water quality pollution and develop new methods for its assessment. Most importantly, through the identification of water quality "thresholds" which result in reduced biodiversity, better guidelin ....New approaches for protecting stream health in temperate Australia: Devising nutrient and salinity guidelines using diatoms. Salinity and nutrient enrichment are the most significant forms of water quality degradation in Australian lowland rivers. This project will identify the biological effect of the water quality pollution and develop new methods for its assessment. Most importantly, through the identification of water quality "thresholds" which result in reduced biodiversity, better guidelines for maintaining stream health will be developed.Read moreRead less
Subterranean invertebrate communities of arid zone Western Australia: diversity, assessment and food-web structure. The diverse and unique subterranean fauna associated with aquifers of the Western Australia arid zone is potentially threatened by water extraction, mining and other human impacts. This project aims to apply a powerful combination of molecular genetic analyses and compound specific isotope analyses to study, for the first time, the food web structure and source of energy of these g ....Subterranean invertebrate communities of arid zone Western Australia: diversity, assessment and food-web structure. The diverse and unique subterranean fauna associated with aquifers of the Western Australia arid zone is potentially threatened by water extraction, mining and other human impacts. This project aims to apply a powerful combination of molecular genetic analyses and compound specific isotope analyses to study, for the first time, the food web structure and source of energy of these groundwater ecosystems. The project aims to also develop novel procedures for monitoring their biodiversity using environmental DNA within the groundwater. The results will provide crucial information for the management of groundwater, and conservation of their associated ecosystems, and significantly improve the rigour of long-term environmental monitoring.Read moreRead less
Sediment-derived scenarios of wetland status and change, the Lower River Murray, SA. River Murray wetlands changed early in European settlement so the pre-impact conditions are invisible to managers relying on anecdote or monitoring. Baseline conditions of wetlands can be derived from ecological archives preserved in sediments. Fossil diatom assemblages, reflective of past water quality, and other fossils, will be exhumed from sediment sequences to reconstruct wetland conditions. The integration ....Sediment-derived scenarios of wetland status and change, the Lower River Murray, SA. River Murray wetlands changed early in European settlement so the pre-impact conditions are invisible to managers relying on anecdote or monitoring. Baseline conditions of wetlands can be derived from ecological archives preserved in sediments. Fossil diatom assemblages, reflective of past water quality, and other fossils, will be exhumed from sediment sequences to reconstruct wetland conditions. The integration of multiple indicators of the past will generate graphic re-enactments of natural wetland dynamics. These will provide a vision for community and government on-ground managers enabling them to perceive appropriate targets for wetland state and so generate measures to work towards sustainable conditions.Read moreRead less
Retrospective ecological character assessment for a review of Ramsar status of The Coorong, SA. Integrated analyses of the chemical and biological remains contained in the sediments of the Coorong will provide for a reconstruction of ecological change and variability over the last several thousand years. Detailed analyses of the recent sediments will measure how the condition of the Coorong has departed from this natural background and so provide an audit of human impact on the last wetland in t ....Retrospective ecological character assessment for a review of Ramsar status of The Coorong, SA. Integrated analyses of the chemical and biological remains contained in the sediments of the Coorong will provide for a reconstruction of ecological change and variability over the last several thousand years. Detailed analyses of the recent sediments will measure how the condition of the Coorong has departed from this natural background and so provide an audit of human impact on the last wetland in the Murray darling Basin. This evidence will directly inform the determination of the ecological character of this Ramsar listed, national ecological asset and steer its management for a sustainable future. Read moreRead less
Using ancient fish ear bones to overcome the shifting baseline syndrome in freshwater fish populations. Chemical tracers in fish ear bones from 5,500 years ago through to modern times will provide information on changes in fish ecology over centuries and identify why freshwater fish populations have declined. Outcomes will provide knowledge of how fish populations would react to altered fishing pressure and restoration of environments.
Conservation biology of the largest Australian freshwater tortoise, the broad-shelled tortoise, Chelodina expansa - rare and endangered or cryptic and secure? The Murray is a highly managed river, with flows controlled by catchments and diversions. The combined impacts of water resource development, habitat modification and introduced species are astonishingly diverse, and include extinctions of some fish and invertebrates and depression of populations of many other species. Australia's largest ....Conservation biology of the largest Australian freshwater tortoise, the broad-shelled tortoise, Chelodina expansa - rare and endangered or cryptic and secure? The Murray is a highly managed river, with flows controlled by catchments and diversions. The combined impacts of water resource development, habitat modification and introduced species are astonishingly diverse, and include extinctions of some fish and invertebrates and depression of populations of many other species. Australia's largest chelid turtle, the broad-shelled turtle, is a high-level consumer thought to be particularly sensitive to these changes. We will use an innovative combination of non-destructive technologies to investigate the conservation biology of this species in the Lower Murray, where it is regarded as rare and where its biology is virtually unknown to inform conservation management and restoration initiativesRead moreRead less
Effects of urbanisation and introduced species on rivers and estuaries: a whole of catchment approach. Humans have converted land into urban and agricultural areas, as well as intentionally or accidentally introduced species into aquatic systems. Estuaries and rivers are some of the most degraded systems on earth and fishes are among the most endangered vertebrates worldwide. We will utilise novel modelling techniques to provide predictive models that investigate fish-environment relationships. ....Effects of urbanisation and introduced species on rivers and estuaries: a whole of catchment approach. Humans have converted land into urban and agricultural areas, as well as intentionally or accidentally introduced species into aquatic systems. Estuaries and rivers are some of the most degraded systems on earth and fishes are among the most endangered vertebrates worldwide. We will utilise novel modelling techniques to provide predictive models that investigate fish-environment relationships. We will also investigate impacts of trout introductions on native fish including dietary, competitive and assemblage level changes to the system. Essential data for the sustainable management of freshwater and estuarine systems will be obtained, which will lead to an environmentally sustainable Australia. Read moreRead less
Adaptive Agents Simulation of Freshwater Ecosystems: Artificial Intelligence Framework to Discover and Forecast Emergent Ecosystem Structures and Behaviours in Response to Environmental Changes. The project aims at intelligent adaptive agent models for lakes and rivers in order to improve understanding and proactive management of these highly complex ecosystems. Little is known about species succession in freshwater ecosystems in response to local and global environmental changes. Evolutionary a ....Adaptive Agents Simulation of Freshwater Ecosystems: Artificial Intelligence Framework to Discover and Forecast Emergent Ecosystem Structures and Behaviours in Response to Environmental Changes. The project aims at intelligent adaptive agent models for lakes and rivers in order to improve understanding and proactive management of these highly complex ecosystems. Little is known about species succession in freshwater ecosystems in response to local and global environmental changes. Evolutionary algorithms embodied in differential equations, neural networks and rules allow adaptive agents to simulate emergent structures and behaviours of algae and zooplankton communities interacting by competition and predation. The agents are trained and tested by ecological time-series of twelve lakes and rivers, and validated for the Mediterranean Myponga Reservoir, South Australia, and the temperate Burrinjuck Reservoir, NSW.Read moreRead less